EXCEL Test, Part 1

Alex took Part 1 of the EXCEL test on Tuesday.

Evergreen School District uses the Iowa CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test), which can be studied for . . . in fact, there are study guides available for puchase online.  I downloaded a practice test, and Alex took it Monday night.  Most of the practice test was very easy for him; he quickly and easily got 100% on the Math, Science, and Social Studies.  In the Reading and Language parts, he had a little more difficulty.  I had to coach him a little on word associations.  for example, he missed the following problem:

The words BLUE, GREEN, and RED are alike in some way.  Choose the word that is alike in the same way: 

1. COLOR
2. CRAYON
3. PAINT
4. YELLOW
5. RAINBOW

Alex chose the word COLOR.  In fact, he chose this word several times, even after I told him that it was incorrect.  Eventually, he seemed to understand that the correct answer is YELLOW.

In addition, he missed a few problems in which he was asked to find a spelling, word usage, or punctuation error.  Most of his mistakes were simply the result of going too fast.  A couple of them were the result of his not knowing a particular rule.  For example, he did not know that there is supposed to be a comma between the day and the year in the following date format:  January 1, 2010.

He got up on Tuesday morning for the test and got to choose anything he wanted for breakfast.  He chose hashbrowns.  Freshly grated hashbrowns.  He also had to take a sack lunch for the test, so we had bought some special treats for him and he got to take an extra special lunch that he would really enjoy after the test.  I spent the morning grating and frying potatoes while he got ready for school.  The hashbrowns did not cook as quickly as I had hoped, so we were a little rushed getting out the door, but he did make it to school on time.

He took the test on Tuesday morning.  He was the only student from his class to take it.  He told us that he took the math sections only, and that they were very easy.  There were 6 sections, and he seemed to be pretty upset that, although it was easy, he did not have time to complete one of the sections.  I explained to him that some tests are designed so that nobody finishes them, and that is okay.  When he got back to his classroom, he spent the rest of the day doing math in school.  He thought it was funny that he spent an entire school day doing math!

Tomorrow is the second half of the test, including the Language parts of the test that I am nervous about.  I'm just going to coach him to take his time and double check his work so he avoids the problems he normally has with hurrying through his work.  He got to bed a little early tonight; we have some special stuff ready so he can pack whatever he wants in his lunch, and I have told him he can have anything for breakfast again.

I'd better get up a little early in preperation for those hashbrowns again!